Gods, Myths, Religion, Philosophers - and Projected 'Self-Energy Centers'
People think that yesterday's God's and myths are dead - a product of 'primitive' man who simply didn't 'know' any better. We all know myths are - well, false. Or are they? Epistemologically they may or may not be false. They probably are. But the same can be said about today's Gods and religions as well. Are we so arrogantly bold as to believe that our own God(s) and religion(s) has any more epistemological claim to 'truth' than ancient Greek mythology? If we think we do - we shouldn't. They are both the product of the same creative psyche - projecting a combination of symbolism and need into the outside world...and into 'heaven'.
We need to be accountable for our own projections - they are products of our own psyche, our own active, creative imaginations, usually built from some percentage, some proportion, of experiential truth and fictional fantasy. A projection is usually either a 'stereotype' and/or an 'archetype'. Stereotypes we lay on our friends, families, lovers, and enemies. Again, they usually contain a combination of truth and fiction.
Archetypes we lay on our 'Gods' - and in DGB Philosophy, also our 'great philosophers from the past'. They too, usually contain a combination of truth and fiction. Epistemologically, they usually contain mainly or totally - fictions. However, psychically, they contain 'truths' and these truths may be viewed as a combination of projected 'energy centers' and 'ego functions'. If we re-introject (swallow whole) the projective imagery that we originally spat out at the world in the form of Gods, myths, and religious symbolism - then we give ourselves the opportunity of 'taking back' our 'energy centers' and 'ego-functions' that we may have lost in our projections, suppressions, repressions, and/or denials. In effect, our Gods are us. We simply have to take re-ownership of them.
We can do this if we look at our Gods differently - specifically, as energy centers, ego-functions, and areas of self-empowerment that we gave up to the world in the form of our projections - our Gods, myths, religion - combined with a willingness to go back to an earlier state of being, both in childhood and in more primitive states of being in a relationship and in society - an authoritarian society where we 'hang onto' a portion of our ego - or an 'ego-state' - that is still willing to play the role of the 'submissive servant or slave': 'You're right, I'm wrong'; you're good, I'm bad; you're perfect, I'm imperfect; you're the master, I'm the slave. This is the 'dialectic dance' of the 'master/slave' relationship. It is still played out in business every day we go to work. It is still played out in many marriages and relationships, in most schools, in many doctor-patient relationships, in most expert-layperson relationships, professional-nonprofessional relationships, academic-nonacademic relationship, rock star or professional athlete/groupie relationship...and in most Churches, Synagogues, and Mosques...
More than anything perhaps, we have a tendency to project the 'master/slave' relationship into our relationship with God...or vicariously into our relationship with our priest, pastor, minister, favorite evangelist...God knows everything; I know nothing; God is good; I am bad...God is right; I am wrong...God is pure; I am a sinner...
This is authoritarian religion with the 'poison masked as candy' being the 'submissive ecstasy' perhaps of being in the company of someone or something much, much greater than ourselves. Bow down to the Pedestalized Idol...Gain your ecstasy by feeling secure and safe in the hands of Someone who protects all of us lesser beings...Bow down to the False Idol...This is the message of Authoritarian Religion....
We need a new type of religion - one that combines good will and compassion, safety and security, rootedness and community - with an unwillingness to bow down to all False Idols - either in heaven or in earth.
I think I can find that directive in The Ten Commandments...Here is it is from the internet...
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You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
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This is the Nietzschean Commandment - the commandment that separates all 'humanistic-existential' religions from 'authoritarian' ones although Nietzsche would have made no such distinction. This is my modification of Nietzsche.
In humanistic-existential religions there will be no 'false idols' - indeed, there will be no idols period. We will re-introject all of our 'projected false idols' and turn them into a new and integrative, multi-dialectical, humanistic-existential form of 'self-empowerment'. As our false idols crumble into the dust our 'suppressed' and 'repressed', 'denied' and 'avoided' energy-centres and ego-functions will slowly start to come alive again. We will start to regain our full humanness...our 'all too humanness'... In DGB Humanistic-Existential Religion (Deism-Pantheism), we will not deny man's sensuality, sexuality, and romanticism (Dionysus, Aphrodite...)but rather aim to integrate it with reason, ethics, integrity (Apollo). One can say that DGB Humanistic-Existential Religion is a religion born partly from Nietzsche's first masterpiece - 'The Birth of Tragedy'.
And that is where I will leave the creative birth of DGB MDHE (Multi-Dialectic, Humanistic-Existential) Mythology and Religion today...
I can feel the spirit of Spinoza, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Jung, and Perls all running through my blood as I write...Dead men, dead spirits - still alive and scorching through my fingers...Are these my own 'false idols'? Or are they my bridge to some form of new 'integrative self-empowerment'? For myself, I believe the latter.
Of course, your are entirely free to decide for yourself...and what you believe is good for you...Many orthodox religious institutions - whether they be Christian, Muslim, or Jewish - do much good for the community around it. They serve a pressing need for compassion, safety, and rootedness...particularly in today's more and more alienated and stressful urban environment that is creating more and more estranged, unrooted or uprooted, anxious people. But overly righteous, anal-retentive, authoritarian religions can and do come with some significant 'side effects' - or even 'main effects' - that can be - indeed are - disturbing in their own right. This is where orthodox religion lost many, many thousands of old or potentially new 'customers' that simply were not 'buying' what orthodox religion was selling anymore...DGB MDHE Pantheism-Deism offers no religious rituals...just a different way of looking at 'God', religion, and spirituality that is not authoritarian and which aims to integrate with science, nature, evolution, romanticism - and humanistic-existentialism.
This approach to a 'new, integrative' religion and spirituality is probably best captured in my much re-worked poem - 'God Is The Bridge'...
dgb, April 11th-12th, 2008.
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God Is The Bridge
God Is The Bridge
Between reason and passion.
Between thought and action.
Between impulse and restraint.
God is the bridge
Between spirituality and sensuality.
Between love and lust.
Between alienation and communion.
God is the bridge
Between being creative and being created.
Between being and becoming.
Between being human and being God-like.
God is the bridge
Between narcissism and altruism.
Between self-assertiveness and social sensitivity.
Between giving and getting.
God is the bridge
Between positive and negative.
Between yin' and yang'.
Between wife and husband.
God is the bridge
Between religion and science.
Between religion and atheism.
Between science and art.
God is the bridge
Between wholism and reductionism
Between abstractionism and concrete particularity.
Between dialectical opposition and dialectical unity.
God is the bridge
Between Israel and Palestine.
Between Christians and Muslims
Between Protestants and Catholics.
Between black and white.
God is the bridge
Between parent and child.
Between righteousness and rebelliousness.
Between parental restraint and teenage impulse.
God is the bridge
Between technology and humanism.
Between industrialism and ecological balance.
Between working to feed your family and working to create your soul.
God is the bridge
Between Conservatism and Liberalism.
Between Capitalism and Socialism.
Between Masculinism and Feminism.
God is the bridge
Between nature and man.
Between God and man.
Between man and man.
God can be found
In the gap, the abyss, the chasm,
That separates you from me.
God is the bridge,
The tightrope,
That we both need the courage to climb onto,
To put aside our fear
And righteousness
And mutual blaming,
To rediscover our humanity...
To rediscover...
The creative, democratic,
Contactful, assertive,
Respectful, empathic,
Dialogue or dialectic,
That brings people back together in differential unity,
The 'I and Thou, here and now',
That we both need to engage in,
To bridge the gap,
Between us,
To rediscover...
The 'God' between us.
God is the bridge between you and me.
DGB, originally written Sept. 29th, 2004; modified June 17th, June 25th, Nov. 23rd, Nov. 27th, 2006, Jan. 25th, 2007, Feb. 19th, 2007, Sept 5th, 2007.
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